Wouldn’t you agree that if you know the facts about an illness it will also assist you in understanding your best treatment options? Irritable Bowel Syndrome is very complex and a case in point. The “syndrome” may be mistaken for a number of separate and specific diagnoses, including those which affect different parts of your intestines. This means, while most irritable bowel issues are related to the colon, as far as abdominal pain from your intestine is concerned this may include the stomach, the small intestine or the colon. Once specific diagnoses are excluded (like diverticulitis), in general, the “syndrome” may be due to irregularity in the muscle spasm of the tract of intestine.

Seeking help from a physician should be the first task that you need to do, if you are suffering from this syndrome. It is generally identified with the aid of your personal history of symptoms, what causes them to get worse or better, blood tests and various types of scans, as well as possible scope procedures. The latter means that a flexible telescope gets introduced into your stomach through your mouth or from below through your anus into your colon. Don’t worry, these are usually done with some type of sedation. The problem is that if you don’t get a proper and complete evaluation, this “syndrome” may actually be a treatable and very specific disease. There is no single test that is especially made for evaluating irritable bowel syndrome.

To get more specific, scope tests from below include the shorter sigmoidoscopy and the longer colonoscopy. This includes tucking in a flexible tube which can bend easily with a camera attached to it. The video and pictures are transmitted to a monitor, which will give your doctor a pretty good view of your insides. Sometimes a biopsy is required to help with the diagnosis.

If nothing specific is found to qualify for diagnoses like acid reflux, diverticulitis, intestinal/colon cancer, Crohn’s disease or colitis, then you may indeed have a generalized disorder like IBS or irritable bowel syndrome. The point is, to re-emphasize, that it is important to exclude these diagnoses first.

Unfortunately, Irritable Bowel Syndrome is a chronic condition. Though can be treated, some symptoms will settle down for a time period, then may go back to the same status or may even increase. It is related to stress and possible foods which may exacerbate your symptoms.

Ultimately there is no curative remedy for many patients with IBS. There are definitely treatments which can reduce your symptoms, but your doctor should also recommend altering your lifestyle and learn to control the stress which may partly cause the problem. As you know, having IBS also increases your stress levels, so it can be a never-ending circle unless you start getting at the root of the problem before symptoms get worse.

Symptom control medications may help while you identify and get your lifestyle issues under control. The doctor may prescribe certain purgatives and supplements for constipation while giving other medicines for diarrhea. Usually antispasmodics are given for the regulation of colon muscles and reducing the pain in the abdomen.

But usually both antidepressant and antispasmodic will induce constipation, again causing a never-ending circle of problems. Also this type of medication can cause addiction problems, so you need to be careful and restrict it for use only until you get to the root of your problems.

Medicines that are used for Irritable Bowel Syndrome are as follows:

Alosetron HCL also called Lotronex is highly used for women who suffer from this disorder when all other traditional methods didn’t work out and when the prime symptom is diarrhea. However the patient need to be careful as its worst side effects are reduced flow of blood towards colon which can be followed by serious constipation.

Tegaserod maleate is another medicine commonly called as Zelnorm, which can be considered as a remedy for a short time period. It is taken for about 4-6 weeks before you can expect some results.

So, work with your physician. Exclude treatable conditions. Consider some symptom control medications. Look at foods which seem to make things worse. Eliminate them and see if you are better. Look at your lifestyle and try to reduce your stress or take steps to control it, using biofeedback and other methods.

People who have Irritable Bowel Syndrome should take a self-inventory and list out the things that they eat. This is a great start, but simply taking inventory is not enough. You should also consider the methods by which food has been prepared.

First, in order to make a list of food you eat, create a log book in a notepad on your computer. You should add particular terms that qualify your log entry, such as where you get the food and how you prepare it. So along with say ‘Fried Rice’, you should not only add that to the list, but also add how it had been prepared, what you may have combined it with etc. Moreover you also need to note the timing of eating your food (both when you eat and how fast you eat) and also your mood at the time of eating a specific food.

The list you make should be part of a daily routine and you need to check it regularly, especially when you are first creating it and adding new items to it. The most suitable time is at the night, at which you can collect a detailed list of the whole day. Each explanation is quite essential and should be given care. Every little item, even a chocolate that you had, needs to be recorded.

The foods that may induce your appetite or for which you have a craving, can be avoided by setting a common diet. Once you have this list, share it with your health care practitioners. You personal dietician or doctor will help you in charting a suitable diet plan for you, based upon the list you have made about the food that you eat. This will vary with your symptoms. Again, some foods may need to be cut out. Some may need to be added. For example, if you have constipation, then the most important food that you need to include in your diet is fiber rich food which will reduce this constipation.

The feces should bulk up if you add fiber rich content in your diet. Thus the best way of fighting with the symptom,’constipation’, is to add fiber rich fruits like orange, banana etc. The fiber works by adding volume to the stools.

The foods that increase your symptoms should be systematically removed one by one. In general, the foods that induces the syndrome are actually those that are rich in fat as this slows down the digestion of other foods. But in your case, it may be different. In the long run it is all about balance and not absolutes, but you first have to figure out how YOUR body responds to the foods you eat.

While carrying out or implementing this diet chart for Irritable Bowl Syndrome the first and foremost thing to do is check whether you are taking regular meals at the proper time. This “proper” time may vary from individual to individual. You will have to experiment.

If the symptom of diarrhea predominates in Irritable Bowel Syndrome, the most beneficial diet chart may include small meals at multiple regular intervals. However when you have diarrhea the symptom is mainly watery stools. You can lose a LOT of water. It is important to follow your doctor’s advice to check out the amount of water that you should be taking based on your body size, the amount of exercise you engage in, the climate you live in etc.

Generally the amount of water or fluid intake should be high. The classic recommendation is 6-8 glasses of WATER every day. Again, this may vary by individual. On the other hand, caffeinated drinks, alcohol based beverages, carbonated soda etc. should be avoided. Carbonated sodas produce gas, thereby resulting in a bloated belly, while caffeine may cause diarrhea and stimluate the intestine which worsens the condition further.

Irregular Bowel Syndrome may also be due to dairy products like cheese, mayonnaise etc. As you get older, lactose is not metabolized well and may lead to IBS. If you are not tolerant of lactose, then switch over to lactose free yogurts instead of pure milk which will provide you the same protein. Alternatively, you can also use an enzyme supplement to help in breaking down lactose.

In the end, everyone is different. The “syndrome” may have different causes in different people. You need to take a personal inventory and decide what needs to be done based on this information. For best results, work with a health care practitioner who knows and understands you and your personal needs.

Many people who suffer from the Irritable Bowel Syndrome try to decrease the symptoms with all different types of approaches. After being frustrated by little help from standard mainstream treatments, some go for Ayurvedic or herbal treatment while others try hypnotism or other mind-body stratgies. But it is very distressing to see that people never attach much significance to their lifestyle, especially eating habits. First and foremost, a special diet chart is not started nor maintained. This is a big mistake. As with anything else, it is best to start with the basics and the root causes.

It is also alarming to note that a number of bogus diets are available for irritable bowel syndrome. There are too many “experts” out there who offer incorrect advice regarding proper diets for irritable bowel syndrome, whether by ignorance or other reasons. This certainly leads to mixed results. You may ask why this is an issue. Well, simply put, you are in pain and we all tend to believe everything that we read or see online or in books. That mix is a bad one, because it leads to bad choices out of desperation. Again, the best steps are to understand the disease, understand your body and how the environment ( what you eat, drink and expose yourself to ) affects you. Then act on that starting with the basics, like diet.

It is crucial to note that diet plays an important role in the cause of irritable bowel syndrome. The problem is, what is the “right diet”? Everyone is different and different foods will interact with your intestine differently. This is because we differ in ability to metabolize foods, even if it is ever so slightly. As a result, those who wish to find a solution for this are ready to pay any amount of money so as to have somebody who could suggest a personalized diet for them. Leave this to the end, if nothing else is working.

For most people, a personal designer diet is not necessary. People suffering from irritable bowel syndrome should first try sticking to a particular generic diet that covers the basics. Determining a generally appropriate diet for irritable bowel syndrome requires only an understanding of the following tips:

1) Try to think categorically, and not specifically – There is no specific diet that induces the manifestations of irritable bowel syndrome. You have to just remember that there exist certain kinds of foods which are liable to trigger the illness. You should avoid these general classes of foods:

The generally “right” diet for irritable bowel syndrome excludes foods that come under these classes due to the reason that they will induce symptoms of the syndrome.

2) Substitute and broaden – You may find substitutes for the various foods that have to be eliminated. You may also try diverse meals so that you are not bored with the diet set up. It should be remembered that dieting to alleviate the symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome can be effective only if you commit to follow it.

3/ Don’t eliminate all of the foods at once. Try one group at a time. Or if you have already eliminated a lot of groups, and you miss some of them, try adding back one at a time. If it does not cause symptoms to return, you may be able to continue enjoying that group forever. In some cases foods may interact to produce symptoms, so be careful and just go slow.

The term “irritable bowel syndrome” often confuses people who come across this term. After all, what does it really mean? Most of them are amazed at the many different symptoms linked to it. What is irritable bowel syndrome? Understanding this illness requires one to have a basic knowledge of the following aspects:

1) Symptoms: There are certain common manifestations associated with irritable bowel syndrome in humans. The syndrome could be very well understood by the way these symptoms affect the body. The question “What is irritable bowel syndrome?” was really hard to be answered by anyone formerly. Irritable bowel syndrome is actually not a disease. It is associated with a number of symptoms, and hence called a syndrome.

This is due to the fact that a few symptoms of the condition directly oppose each other. For example, while some people affected with the syndrome are subject to diarrhea some others suffer from constipation.

2) Causes: As mentioned above, irritable bowel syndrome is not a disease, but rather a disorder. As long as one wishes to understand the term, it is of importance to completely understand this.

The major reason that the term is misunderstood by many people is that they don’t really know what causes it. Some people think that it is an irritation caused to the stomach by some food that interferes with digestion. Others hold to the notion that it is due to some bacteria or virus.

However, one major point to be kept in mind about irritable bowel syndrome is that it is in fact not caused by anything specific. Irritable bowel syndrome is a condition in which the bowels don’t function in a proper way, and can contract wildly and not in a coordinated fashion. This is in contradistiction to normal slow pulsating and rythmic contractions of smooth muscle in the bowel wall, which gently propels food forward. But spastic uncoordinated excessive contractions eventually lead to the several symptoms related to IBS.

3) Triggers: There are many things that trigger the occurrence of the syndrome. Among them two major ones are as follows:

a) Stress: Many studies have evidenced that stress has got a strong effect on the symptoms of IBS. In reality, the realization of having the syndrome by someone can itself be stressful, which can in turn trigger the symptoms. This is why counseling plays a significant role in the treatment of the syndrome.

This makes people take up alternative therapies of treating the syndrome. Some of them pursue yoga or follow acupuncture in order to relieve stress. This is certainly a very reasonable approach.

b) Food: Eating improper food can certainly trigger IBS symptoms. People having the syndrome should refrain from foods with a high content of fat. Alcohol is also a major trigger of the syndrome, and hence should be avoided by those suffering from IBS.

4) Treatments: Acquiring knowledge about irritable bowel syndrome involves knowing the several treatments used to alleviate the symptoms. Many drugs are available in the market that helps fight its symptoms. However, it is incurable by drugs,as it is a syndrome and not a disease.

All that a person affected with the syndrome needs to do is to keep symptoms under control by taking up different treatments such as relaxation techniques and specialized diets. By doing this, using techniques to attack the root cause, this also can eventually lead to syndrome disappearance.

Does the rise of fast food have something to do with irritable bowel syndrome? IBS is certainly becoming common among people who have crossed over from their teens and even in those in the thirty something age range. Coincidence?

According to a number of research studies, the ingredients in fast food may have a connection with dysfunction of the large intestine or colon which is quite sensitive to both food byproducts and stress. Due to the latter, Irritable Bowel Syndrome is also known as spastic colon. Anyone afflicted with this syndrome may have irregular bowel movements which are labeled spasmodic, and this is often mixed in with constipation as well.

Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) may also be an eventual development in those who have multiple intestinal infections caused by bacteria like E coli, salmonella etc. It is felt that those who develop bacterial gastroenteritis may be more prone to eventually develop IBS. This is not proven by any means, but if you have this condition of are bordering on a chronic symptom state that is close to this, it is reasonable to stop eating foods that might be causing repeat infections. This may occur with spoiled food, some cheeses etc, but is not very common in the USA.

We also know that Irritable Bowel Syndrome deepens one’s stress and anxiety which again worsen the condition. Likewise, other symptoms of IBS also induce some types of nervousness and depression. It can be a full circle of chronic stress-symptoms-stress-symptoms.

In some folks, what was thought to be IBS is really celiac disease which is related to lack of ability to efficiently process gluten (a protein) by the digestive system. Wheat flour, barley white of the eye etc contains the protein called gluten which usually helps in the bread making process. The immune system of people afflicted with celiac disease reacts to this protein- gluten, by destroying tissue in the intestinal wall. By doing a blood test you can confirm whether or not you may have this gluten allergy vs. IBS. The test is for certain antibodies that may be present in your system. Keep one important point in mind if you are tested. A positive test pretty much says that you have gluten allergy or celiac disease. However, if the test is negative, it does NOT mean that you do not have celiac disease. This is referred to as a false negative and can certainly be your problem. So, if you suspect that you may still have celiac disease after a negative test, simply try a gluten free diet. If you are better after a few weeks to a month, you have your answer.

So, this may be repetitive from article to article, but in order to stop suffering from IBS, or what you may thing is IBS, is straightforward to attack. First, working with a doctor, make sure it is not a diagnosable disease rather than IBS. Second, assuming there is no disease diagnosis, determine which foods make your conditions worse, and eliminate them. Third, even though stress is becoming more and more part of the average person’s human condition, you either have to eliminate the stress or manage it.

Research shows that the simple Kiwi Fruit seems to help folks with constipation predominant irritable bowel syndrome. The video reviews the research paper listed below from Taipei plus a few interesting points about no side effects. This is another natural food related tip for you, especially if you happen to like Kiwis like I do.

Source

Abstract

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a common functional disorder of the gastrointestinal system, and is characterized by abdominal pain, diarrhea (IBS/D), constipation (IBS/C), and alternating diarrhea and constipation (IBSC/A). The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of a four week kiwifruit intervention on bowel function in patients diagnosed with IBS/C. Fifty-four patients with IBS/C and 16 healthy adults participated in this study. All subjects participated in the 6 week, three phase study, which included a baseline phase (1 week), a dietary intervention period (4 weeks), and a post-intervention phase (1 week). Forty-one IBS/C patients and all healthy adults consumed two Hayward green (Actinida deliciosa var) kiwifruits per day for 4 weeks. Thirteen IBS/C patients in the control group took two placebo capsules per day for 4 weeks. Colon transit time was measured immediately prior to and following the intervention period. All subjects completed daily defecation records. After the 4-week intervention, weekly defecation frequency significantly increased in the IBS/C group of participants who consumed kiwifruit (p<0.05). Colon transit time significantly decreased (p=0.026) in the IBS/C group that consumed kiwi fruit. These findings suggest that kiwifruit consumption for 4 weeks shortens colon transit time, increases defecation frequency, and improves bowel function in adults diagnosed with IBS/C.

Bottom Line

Kiwi fruit improves your intestine’s ability to pass food through the colon, which is what is called “transit time”. In IBS-C situations, try adding Kiwi to your diet instead of medications if at all possible.

Let’s take a look at some of the foods that induce IBS symptoms, or foods that cause related bowel symptoms:

Fatty food items: A person who has IBS should reduce their fat intake to about 25% maximum.

Caffeinated drinks: Even decaffeinated coffee drinks contain substances that can cause irritation to your gut. Caffeinated drinks also stimulate the intestine to contract, so that can really exacerbate symptoms.

Milk and Cheese Products: Most people lose an enzyme called lactase as they age. This enzyme helps break down lactose, which is present in milk and cheese products. When you get symptoms after eating these products, you may be “lactose intolerant”. This is not IBS, but rather a very treatable condition which is simply treated by avoiding these foods.

Gluten Allergy: Some people develop a condition where your body literally treats gluten (a protein) as a foreign substance to which you develop and antibody response allergy. The problem is that this literally destroys the lining of your intestine and, in the process of mass destruction, causes IBS like symptoms. The condition is called Celiac disease and is treated by simply avoiding foods containing gluten. You can get a blood test for this, but beware. If this test is negative, it may be a false negative….which means you actually HAVE the disease but the test was negative. So, if unsure, just cut gluten out of the diet.

Just like there are foods which promote symptoms, there are nutrient types which may reduce Irritable Bowel Syndrome symptoms:

Fiber rich food: Eating food which is fiber rich will help in digestion. In some people, it can stimulate the bowel and cause symptoms, but soluble fiber works well as a stabilizer preventing both constipation and diarrhea in the long run. Insoluble fiber, which is healthy and present in fruits and veggies, is good for you but is more likely to cause IBS symptoms. This is something you have to balance in your lifestyle because you need the nutrients in fruits and veggies. Sometimes soluble fiber can balance the symptom inducing effect of insoluble fiber. IF you can’t tolerate them, please remember to consider a better supplementation program.

Probiotics: Although not a food per se, just as an intro to the fact that there are supplementation strategies to add to your basic diet plan, sometimes you can get overgrowth of “bad bacteria” in your intestine which overwhelm the “good bacteria”. Good bacteria are CRITICAL to good digestion and when this imbalance occurs, as it possibly can after a lot of antibiotics, you can end up with something that may be IBS. In some cases you actually need to kill the offending “bad bacteria” first with another antibiotic, but then regaining good balance using probiotics is a good strategy. Work with you doctor on determining if you have a “bad bacteria” overgrowth as this can be VERY serious and can even kill. So, be proactive, but don’t forget that there are aspects of mainstream medicine that you still need to work with to get you out of the woods.

Most people are quite surprised when they came to know the symptoms of Irritable Bowel Syndrome or IBS has been with them throughout their life, from the very beginning. This is often the situation if you consider how many people are only examined and treated after years of suffering the discomfort.

This is mainly because people take it as completely normal thing to go to the rest room more than two to three times or even if they have to do this for a couple of weeks. After living with it for quite some time, abdominal pain becomes a normal issue and people get over this discomfort after certain time period and many of them jut ignore the IBS symptoms even when they occur again.

This has become the usual life cycle of Irritable Bowel Syndrome. Many people even suffer from mild attacks of the symptom which induce aches in the muscles of abdomen which follows a gap of time period when the irritation pauses for a while. The point is, it is often simply not recognized at first as something abnormal.

About 15% of the general population suffers from IBS. It is most prominent disorder cited by the gastroenterologists who are specialists with intestinal tract problems. The problem is that it is not a disease in the sense that we know what causes it in everyone. Instead it is a bit different in different individuals who have different triggers for its symptoms.

The first thing that needs to occur is to make sure Irritable Bowel is not misidentified as colitis or mucous colitis, ulcer, cancer, Celiac disease and other treatable conditions. Some of these can be life threatening and need immediate attention.

Irritable Bowel Syndrome is classified under “functional disorder” without a specific cause, like a bacteria or virus. It is qualified as an abnormal condition which you cannot really diagnose using traditional modes of testing like blood tests, examinations, X ray, colonoscopy, etc. However, using these tests one can determine if another condition is present. If not, a person is usually “diagnosed” with IBS as a last resort.

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Irritable Bowel Syndrome is related to both intestinal metabolic and biochemical function as well as nervous system connections. In other works, it likely has direct effect reasons for its existence, like certain foods, as well as indirect effects like stress.

Though the Irritable Bowel Syndrome can manifest through a lot of symptoms, the basic symptom was discovered to be the abdominal discomfort or abdominal muscle pain which is connected to the alterations in bowel pattern like frequent bowel movements and watery mucus filled stools. More than 3-5 bowel movements per day, especially if they are related to pain, means you may have IBS. This of course assumes you have been tested for the other conditions mentioned already.

Any given individual may have distinctly separate symptoms, i.e. the strength and the frequency of the irritation can differ from one person to other. Most of them have mild abdominal pain while others bear it, thinking that it not unusual. Very unfortunate, as many do not come to medical attention until the syndrome is very advanced.

Though there are several options available for getting at the root causes, no specific cure is available for it. As long as the remedy works for your case, it can be applied. This may be mainstream medication, natural remedies and stress reduction strategies. While some respond to one treatment others may respond to the same treatment less well. The same can be applied to food also. Some food may cause irritation to some people while it is not a problem for others.

To generate a more comprehensive examination for a remedy that will work for you, its best if you consult your doctor and a team including a nturitional expert practitioner.

Most people have misunderstood or been told that the Irritable Bowel Syndrome is a disease. It is a syndrome. Who cares you say? “I’m in pain” in either case might also be your response. But there is a BIG difference as to how you approach this.

Irritable Bowel Syndrome can have lot of negative connotations because it is said that “there is no cure”. This can lead to more stress and more symptoms. The point is this. A disease often has very specific causes like a bacterial infection and can be treated with something like antibiotics. Even a life threatening disease like cancer has very specific targeted therapies even if they don’t always work in the end. A syndrome is a loose collection of symptoms based on “causes” that may be different from one person to the next. The treatment here is VERY different in this case and requires individualization.

As an aside, one thing is for sure, in case you are wondering. IBS is not a communicable disease. It is not caused by a virus or bacterium and you cannot “catch it” from someone else. We all are aware of the fact that isolation from the society is one of the harshest punishments a person could have. Even in jail the foremost punishment is social confinement and it is treated as the harshest of all. So, don’t do that to yourself or to others.

A syndrome, until and if a cause is isolated, cannot be treated with specific therapies for a cure. Rather, the symptoms can be managed and if a root cause is identified that works for them eventually this can lead to a cure. However, there are no quick fixes unless IBS was a mis-diagnosis and you have a treatable disease inside you. To be sure, work with a doctor rather than guessing. Some of these other conditions and diseases can be life threatening.

By changing one word for another makes a big difference. We may even respond differently corresponding to the name or label attached to our problems. Irritable Bowel is only a syndrome and not a disease. A syndrome is just a state of condition for a given set of symptoms. People need not keep away from those suffering from Irritable Bowel Syndrome and they should try to help out others who suffer from Irritable Bowel Syndrome. By learning the correct usage of words we are able to understand condition of the fellow sufferers too.

The name indicates irritable bowel syndrome is a “syndrome”, and a syndrome is described as having a set of symptoms. Symptoms of the syndrome may vary from one individual to another, and the diagnosis of the syndrome can be elusive. The syndrome can be truly determined by a physician only when all the various symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome a person experiences are tested for, and other intestinal disease is excluded.

However, the symptoms experienced by most people are too mild that they do not consult a physician. Indeed, a person suffering from the symptoms of the syndrome would more probably ascribe it to taking bad food than any other reason. Then they simply live with it, for decades sometimes.

In some cases the symptoms characterizing Irritable bowel syndrome may eventually ruin a person’s life. We are mainly talking about diarrhea and abdominal pain, although there are a lot of other manifestations of IBS.

How a person can get relief from the symptoms of Irritable Bowel Syndrome:

1) Analyzing the symptoms – In order for the symptoms to be controlled, it is essential to know about these symptoms. This is due to the fact that Irritable bowel syndrome can exhibit a collection of symptoms and it varies from person to person. Some people suffer from diarrhea, whereas some others experience constipation. Some of them experience abdominal cramping whereas a few others feel bloated. Learn your body and compare with those who are “healthy” to see if you are living with something that should be addressed.

2) Evaluate your diet- Whatever you feel internally is associated with what you eat in many cases. And when you have found out the symptoms of your illness it is very easy to remove those symptoms in many cases by eliminating that category of foods from your diet. One of the most prominent ways to do is to start with a well balanced diet, and get off the SAD (Standard America Diet) of super-sized french fries and sodas. You have to choose your food depending upon the type of symptom. The food should be soothing to the bowel and intestine. This is trial and error in most people with help from nutritional coaches and doctors.

In general reduce high fat food intake, limit alcoholic beverages or any dairy products.It is FAR more complex than this, but it’s a start. The point is learn your diet after you learn your body.

3) Cool Down and Relax- Don’t exhaust yourself. Don’t take too much tension or stress in life. Be calm and cool in your work environment, which will have profound effects on your bowel also which aids in recovering fast. You can see employees carrying antacid in their hand. These is mainly because of the appearance of the symptoms of Irritable Bowel Syndrome and ulcers. Try to remove these influences. IF you can’t, try to manage them through stress reduction and management techniques including yoga and meditation. These do not have to be foreign concepts and you do not have to go completely Zen if you don’t want to. But basics in these areas can go a long way to help.

By working on some of the above you should be able to alleviate the symptoms of IBS in some manner, and get closer to the root cause and possible cure. Thinking that it is incurable does not help. Be proactive! You can defeat this syndrome.

In this fast paced lifestyle Irritable Bowel syndrome can be a life changing disturbance. Though it’s not life threatening, the potential incurability makes a person’s life miserable. The stress of not feeling in control, of not being able to do anything about it, can lead to worsening of symptoms. So, it can become a never ending miserable cycle.

Sometimes people try mainstream medicine to get relief from the symptoms of the Irritable Bowel Syndrome. This may or may not work, but it definitely does not get at the root of the problem. Failing symptom reduction in this manner, some prefer to go for alternate medicines or remedies and use only natural organic ways or Chinese traditional methods of treatment to try to find the elusive cure. The problem is that many “Alternative” remedies are a sham and do not help. So, where to go and what to do?

Some integrative natural remedies for consideration:

1) Acupuncture – This therapy is based on the life force and is known as Qi (comes from chi of Chinese). It is believed that the imbalance in a person’s Qi can result in various symptoms and diseases. Acupuncturists try to remove this imbalance with the help of thin needles especially used for this purpose. The needles will stimulate the pressure points of the body, thereby energizing life force and thus Qi become more balanced. Whether or not you believe in life forces, we know that acupuncture works for many conditions including pain and nausea and this has been documented even in mainstream peer reviewed medical journals.

Acupuncture also aid to relieve stress and relax yourself and reduce pain, and the procedure itself is quite painless. The needles used for acupuncture are too small and never cause any pain. Acupressure was developed as a related technique for those scared of needles. In addition you can learn some of the basic moves and pressure points and do some of this at home whenever symptoms strike.

2) Ayurvedic/Herbal Remedy

Certain kinds of herbs are very useful in recovering from the symptoms of Irritable Bowel Syndrome.

The two main kind of medicinal herb delivery systems used for treatment are:

1) Teas -all the medicinal herbs can be immersed in hot water to create a drinkable extract essence. The process by which the herbs get immersed in the hot water delivers certain enzymes and also ingredients which are nutritious and that are needed to improve the symptoms of Irritable Bowel Syndrome. Thus whenever a patient drinks tea they can be sure that the essence of the extracts is going into their stomach and through the intestine. Different types of herbs are used in the formation of the tea which could also give the desired results and can be used as a flavor also. Mostly they exert a calmative effect on the intestine. Remember to avoid caffeine which is present in basic green, white and black teas.

b) Medicinal Supplements/Capsules – Essential ingredients of medicine or herbs can be encapsulated for another way to deliver them through the intestine.

Types of herbs to consider for IBS symptom alleviation include: Peppermint and Ginger.

3) Hypnotism & Biofeedback-The mental state is VERY much connected and affects your intestine. Therefore, stress is a major factor in IBS. Since most of us cannot wish stress away, one can control its effects. Hypnotism is one way that you can do this. Biofeedback is another. This is a very complex topic and requires more in-depth background and technique to be effective.